Stereoscopic imaging apparatus and method

1. A stereoscopic imaging apparatus for imaging a plurality of stereoscopic images obtained when an object is viewed from different points, the apparatus comprising: an optical image forming unit having a single optical axis, which image-forms the object; a light receiving unit in which a plurality of light receiving elements are arranged and the object is image-formed by said optical image forming unit; a light passing portion including first and second openings through which light having passed through first and second regions in said optical image forming unit is irradiated to said light receiving unit; and an optical separation portion which simultaneously images both a first image having passed through the first opening and a second image having passed through the second opening, on the different light receiving elements of said light receiving unit.

2. Apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first and second openings of said light passing portion are equipped with first and second opening optical filters which transmit different optical light components, respectively.

3. Apparatus of claim 2 , wherein said optical separation portion includes: a first light receiving portion optical filter which transmits again a light component having transmitted through the first opening optical filter; and a second light receiving portion optical filter which transmits again a light having transmitted through the second opening optical filter, wherein the first light receiving portion optical filter and the second light receiving optical filter are arranged in an alternate order.

4. Apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the first and second opening optical filters of the light passing portion are opening specific wavelength component transmitting filters which transmit different specific wavelength components of the light, respectively.

5. Apparatus of claim 4 , wherein said optical separation portion includes: a first light receiving portion specific wavelength component transmitting filter which transmits the light having the same wavelength component as the first opening specific wavelength transmitting filter of said light passing portion; and a second light receiving portion specific wavelength component transmitting filter which transmits the light having the same wavelength component as the second opening specific wavelength component transmitting filter of said light passing portion, wherein said light receiving unit is covered in a manner such that the first and second light receiving portion specific wavelength component transmitting filters are arranged in alternate order.

6. Apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the first light receiving portion specific wavelength component transmitting filter includes: filters that transmit specific RGB wavelength components ( R 1 , G 1 and B 1 ), respectively, and the second light receiving portion specific wavelength component transmitting filter includes: filters that transmit specific RGB wavelength components ( R 2 , G 2 and B 2 ), respectively, and wherein the filter transmitting the wavelength R 1 and the filter transmitting R 2 are arranged adjacently; the filter transmitting the wavelength G 1 and the filter transmitting G 2 are arranged adjacently; and the filter transmitting the wavelength B 1 and the filter transmitting B 2 are arranged adjacently.

7. Apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the first and second opening optical filter of said light passing portion are opening specific polarization component transmitting filters that transmit the light having a polarization plane of the horizontal direction and a polarization plane of the vertical direction, respectively.

8. Apparatus of claim 7 , wherein said optical separation portion includes light receiving portion specific polarization component transmitting filters which transmit the light having polarization planes of the horizontal and vertical directions, and wherein the light receiving portion specific polarization component transmitting filters which transmit the light having polarization planes of the horizontal and vertical directions are arranged in an alternate manner so as to cover said light receiving unit.

9. Apparatus of claim 7 , wherein said optical separation portion includes a polarization component separating portion that separates the light having polarization planes of the horizontal and vertical directions, and said light receiving unit includes: a first light receiving plane which receives light having the horizontal-direction polarization plane separated by the polarization component separating portion; and a second light receiving plane which receives light having vertical-direction polarization plane separated by the polarization component separating portion.

10. Apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising an electrically separating portion which electrically separates the first image that is imaged by said light receiving unit from the second image that is imaged by said light receiving unit.

11. Apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the light receiving element is an charge-coupled device, and said light receiving unit comprises a photoelectric conversion image element in which a plurality of charge-coupled devices are arranged.

12. Apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said first and second images are formed from a first area and a second area of the object, respectively, and wherein said light passing portion further includes a first filter and a second filter being aligned for passing said first and second images therethrough, respectively.

13. A camera for acquiring data on a distance between the camera and an object, comprising: a first optical image forming unit having a single optical axis, which image-forms the object; a first light receiving unit in which a plurality of light receiving elements are arranged and the object is image-formed by said first optical image forming unit; a light passing portion including first and second openings through which light having passed through first and second regions in said first optical image forming unit is irradiated to said first light receiving unit; an optical separation portion which simultaneously images both a first image having passed through the first opening and a second image having passed through the second opening, on the different light receiving elements of said first light receiving unit; and a distance calculating unit which calculates a distance between said optical image forming unit and at least a point on the object, based on the first and second images.

14. Camera of claim 13 , further comprising: a second optical image forming unit which image forms the object; a second light receiving unit which image-forms the object by said second optical image forming unit; and a control unit which controls at least one of focusing and aperture of said optical image forming unit, and exposure time of said second light receiving unit, based on the distance calculated by said distance calculating unit.

15. Camera of claim 14 , further comprising a recoding unit which records an image imaged by said second light receiving portion and the distance calculated by said distance calculating unit.

16. Camera of claim 13 , further comprising: a second light receiving unit which image-forms the object by said first optical image forming unit; and a control unit which controls at least one of focusing and aperture of said first optical image forming unit, and exposure time of said second light receiving unit, based on the distance calculated by said distance calculating unit.

17. Camera of claim 13 , further comprising a drive unit which moves said light passing portion and said optical separation portion out of an optical path defined by a space such that the object is light-received by said first light receiving unit.

18. Camera of claim 13 , wherein said light passing portion further includes a third opening which irradiates to said first light receiving unit the light having passed through a third region in said first optical image forming unit, wherein while said optical serration portion opens the first and second openings and closes the third opening in said light passing portion, the first image having passed through the first opening and the second image having passed through the second opening are simultaneously imaged on the different light receiving elements, and wherein, while said optical separation portion closes the first and second openings and opens the third opening in said light passing portion, the image having passed through the third opening is imaged on the light receiving element.

19. Camera of claim 18 , wherein the first, second and third openings in said light passing portion include an LCD shutter.

20. Camera of claim 13 , wherein said distance calculating unit calculates a distance between said optical image forming unit and the object that is image-formed on a first pixel address of the first image, based on the first pixel address of the first image and a second pixel address in the second image of the object that is image-formed on the first image address.

21. Camera of claim 13 , wherein said first and second images are formed from a first area and a second area of the object, respectively, and wherein said light passing portion further includes a first filter and a second filter being aligned for passing said first and second images therethrough, respectively.

22. A stereoscopic imaging apparatus for imaging a plurality of stereoscopic images obtained when an object is viewed from different points, the apparatus comprising: an optical image forming unit having a single optical axis, which image-forms the object; a light receiving unit in which a plurality of light receiving elements are arranged and the object is image-formed by said optical image forming unit; a light passing portion including first and second openings through which light having passed through first and second regions in said optical image forming unit is irradiated to said light receiving unit; an imaging unit which simultaneously images both a first image that image-forms the object after passing through the first opening and a second image that image-forms the object after passing through the second opening, on said light receiving unit; and a distance calculating unit which calculates a distance between said optical image forming unit and at least a point on the object, based on the image imaged on said light receiving unit.

23. Apparatus of claim 22 , wherein said distance calculating unit includes a stereoscopic amount detecting unit which detects a stereoscopic amount of the first image having passed through the first opening and the second image having passed through the second opening in terms of a specific region of an image imaged in said light receiving unit, so that the distance between the optical image forming unit and the object imaged at the specific region is calculated based on the stereoscopic amount.

24. Apparatus of claim 23 , said distance calculating unit further includes: an auto-correlation calculating unit which calculates correlation between the image of the specific region imaged in said light receiving unit and a reference image acquired by shifting said image in a stereoscopic direction, while a shifted amount thereof is varied by a predetermined amount, so that said stereoscopic detecting unit obtains the stereoscopic amount utilizing the correlation calculated by said auto-correlation calculating unit.

25. Apparatus of claim 24 , wherein said distance calculating unit further includes: an edge extracting unit which extracts an edge image of the image imaged by said light receiving unit, whereby said auto-correlation calculating unit calculates correlation between the edge image of the specific region imaged by said light receiving unit and the reference image acquired by shifting the edge image in the stereoscopic direction while a shifted amount is varied by a predetermined amount.

26. Apparatus of claim 24 , wherein said auto-correlation calculating unit calculates correlation between the image of the specific region imaged by said light receiving unit and the reference image acquired by shifting said image in the substantially same direction as that in which the first and second openings of said light passing portion are arranged, while a shifted amount is varied by a predetermined amount.

27. Apparatus of claim 22 , wherein the light receiving element is an charge-coupled device, and said light receiving unit comprises a photoelectric conversion image element in which a plurality of charge-coupled devices are arranged.

28. Apparatus of claim 22 , further comprising: a second optical image forming unit which image forms the object; a second light receiving unit which image-forms the object by said second optical image forming unit; and a control unit which controls at least one of focusing and aperture of said second optical image forming unit, and exposure time of said second light receiving unit, based on the distance calculated by said distance calculating unit.

29. Apparatus of claim 28 , further comprising a recoding unit which records an image imaged by said second light receiving portion and the distance calculated by said distance calculating unit.

30. Apparatus of claim 22 , further comprising: a second light receiving unit which image-forms the object by said first optical image forming unit; and a control unit which controls at least one of focusing and aperture of said first optical image forming unit, and exposure time of said second light receiving unit, based on the distance calculated by said distance calculating unit.

31. Apparatus of claim 22 , further comprising: a drive unit which moves said light passing portion out of an optical path defined by a space such that the object is light-received by said light receiving unit; and a control unit which controls said optical image forming unit or said light receiving unit utilizing the distance calculated by said distance calculating unit.

32. Apparatus of claim 22 , wherein said light passing portion further includes: a third opening which irradiates to said light receiving unit the light having passed through a third region in said optical image forming unit; a control unit which controls said optical image forming unit or said light receiving portion based on the distance calculated by said distance calculating unit; and a drive unit such that, in the event of imaging a stereoscopic image of the object, while the third opening is being closed and the first and second openings of the light passing portion are opened, an image having passed through the first opening and an image having passed through the second opening are simultaneously imaged, and, in the event of imaging the object, while the third opening of said light passing portion is being opened, an image having passed through is imaged by said light receiving unit.

33. Apparatus of claim 32 , wherein the first, second and third openings in said light passing portion include an LCD shutter.

34. Apparatus of claim 33 , wherein the first and second openings of said light passing portion are provided in the peripheral vicinity of said optical image forming unit, the third opening of said light passing portion is provided in a region including an optical axis of said optical image forming unit, and the third opening occupies larger region than that occupied by the first and second openings.

35. Apparatus of claim 22 , wherein said first and second images are formed from a first area and a second area of the object, respectively, and wherein said light passing portion further includes a first filter and a second filter being aligned for passing said first and second images therethrough, respectively.

36. A stereoscopic imaging method for imaging a plurality of stereoscopic images acquired when an object is viewed from different points, the method comprising: picking up an image of the object at a light receiving unit via a light passing portion which restricts a passage of light in a region other than the different points; extracting an edge image of the image imaged in the light receiving unit; calculating correlation between the edge image of a specific region and a reference image acquired by shifting the edge image in a stereoscopic direction connecting the different points while a shifted amount is varied by a predetermine amount; obtaining a stereoscopic amount of the edge image of the specific region and the reference image based on the shifted amount at which the level of the correlation becomes minimum; and calculating a distance between an optical image forming unit and the object imaged at the specific region.

37. A method of claim 36 , further comprising: adjusting an imaging condition based on the calculated distance; removing a restriction set forth at said picking up the image; and imaging the object under the adjusted imaging condition.

38. A stereoscopic imaging method for imaging a plurality of stereoscopic images acquired when an object is viewed from different points, the method comprising: picking up an image of the object at a light receiving unit via a light passing portion which restricts a passage of light in a region other than the different points; extracting an edge image on a specific region in the image imaged by the light receiving unit; putting values of pixel data of coordinates (x, y) of the edge image in the specific region, as F(i, j) and initializing variables such that a stereoscopic amount is initialized to 0, an optimum value * of the stereoscopic amount is initialized to a predetermined value, a correlation value is initialized to 0 while a minimum value min of the correlation value is initialized to a predetermined value; incrementing the stereoscopic amount by 1 and calculating the correlation value by ( , ) i j F ( i, j ) F ( i , j ) {circumflex over ( )}2; substituting the correlation value into the minimum value min of the correlation value and substituting the stereoscopic amount into the optimum value * of the stereoscopic amount in the event that the correlation value is less than the minimum value min; returning to said incrementing and calculating if the stereoscopic amount is not greater than a predetermined amount; outputting the optimum value * of the stereoscopic amount if the stereoscopic amount is greater than the predetermined amount; and calculating the distance of the object based on the optimum value *.